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Hey, guess what? This sounds just as you’d expect from James Taylor – warm, charming, folksy in instrumentation, vocals and lyrics, and above all wistfully, reassuringly – well, James Taylor. As he sings on ‘You And I Again’, ‘I can’t escape this feeling/That we’ve been this way together, you and I’, anyone expecting something revolutionary will be sorely disappointed. But then this mix of fine performances and closely-observed recordings is the perfect milieu for what is both Taylor’s first new work for well over a decade and an unashamedly nostalgic look back over his life. Yes, he still has the ability to challenge, as he does on ‘Far Afghanistan’, but even this is hardly breaking new ground.

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS BIS-2100 (supplied by www. eclassical. com) As a violinist on the Denon label, Jean-Jacques Kantorow’s CDs were invariably well received in HFN/RR. Then he took up conducting and has amassed a considerable discography with his Finnish orchestra.

This new Schola Cantorum Basiliensis production offers eight of the Venetian composer Antonio Caldara’s early trio sonatas – four each from his Op. 1 and Op. 2 – together with a final chaconne (probably an homage to Corelli). These works appeared in 1693 and 1699; thereafter Caldara became best known for his vocal compositions.

The third album from 23-year-old British blues guitarist Jones opens with a bang, as the band slams into ‘What’s It Gonna Be’, and from there on in the pace doesn’t let up until the closer ‘Stop Moving The House’, taking in along the way a duet with Sandi Thom on the more reflective ‘Don’t Look Back’, and Jones’ labelmate Dana Fuchs deploying her considerable pipes on a cover of ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love’. As a vocalist Jones is an excellent guitarist, and while this album isn’t the last word in subtlety, being more about slam, drive and soaring guitar solos, while the occasional downbeat track sounds rather too AOR, it does its job effectively enough. The rhythm section has real weight and drive, while Jones’ guitar powers out of the mix just as you might hope it would. But somehow I still can’t help hearing the opening of ‘Evil’ and thinking ‘Devil Gate Drive’… AE Sound Quality: 80% Hi-Fi News Lab Report Keen though I am to promote this album’s charitable association, the content itself is evidently compromised.

94kHz/24-bit WAV, Linn Records AKD531 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) This session came about by public demand – in between touring with her bands, Emily Barker was also playing solo acoustic shows of songs old and new, and kept being asked whether these versions of her catalogue were available to buy. As a result, she went into London’s Toerag Studios, known for its use of vintage equipment, along with producer Liam Watson, and recorded this live-to-tape, no edits set, accompanied only by her guitar and harmonica.

Daniel Hope and colleagues (the pianist is the wife of former Emerson Quartet cellist David Finckel) recorded this programme live at Lincoln Center in March ’15. Mahlerians will want primarily to hear the fragment composed in 1876, not well represented in the catalogue. But it’s rather repetitive and Mahler only found his true voice a few years later in the Klagende Lied. The Brahms (First) Piano Quartet is the one orchestrated by Schoenberg.